FME 2018.0 - 23 new featureswhat's new

FME 2018.0 Betas are available, with the official release coming in March. There’s a lot to be excited about this release: workspace authoring more efficient, new formats & transformers and much more. Here are the top new features and enhancements:

Connect & Transform – More format support and transformation power

1. New Format Reader/Writers

Apple Venue Format Reader & Writer
Bentley i-Model Reader (V1)
CALS (Continuous Acquisition and Life-Cycle Support) Raster Reader & Writer
Esri Geodatabase Mosaic Dataset Writer (ArcSDE & File Geodatabase) –
Esri Indexed 3D Scene Layer (I3S)
GDAL Generic Raster Reader (read anything GDAL supports)
54 new GDAL-based Raster Formats
GDAL VRT Raster Reader

Google Cloud Spanner Reader & Writer
HERE Venue Format Reader
HYPACK Reader & Writer
IDRISI Raster Reader & Writer
LDAP (Active Directory) Reader
Microsoft PowerPoint Writer
Microsoft Word Writer
PCD (Point Cloud Data) Reader & Writer
PDF Reader (2D/Raster/Text)
SOSI GML Reader & Writer
Well Log ASCII Standard (WLAS) Reader

2. New Transformers

3DBufferer
HDFSConnector (for moving files into and out of Hadoop)
FeatureJoiner
MSWordStyler
PowerPointStyler
ProjectWiseConnector
S3Connector
SalesforceConnector
SurfaceDissolver

3. Indoor Mapping Formats

Connect to indoor mapping applications with added support for several indoor mapping formats, including Apple Venue Format (reader & writer), HERE Venue Format (reader), IBM TRIRIGA (transformers on FME Hub), and ArcGIS Indoors (templates on FME Hub).

FME indoor mapping Indoor map of Vancouver Airport, viewed in the FME Data Inspector.

4. PDF Reading

PDF is no longer where data goes to die. FME’s new PDF Reader means you can extract rasters, vector data, and text from PDF documents.

FME pdf reader Left: PDF data viewed in the FME Data Inspector. Right: PDF data viewed in Adobe Reader. Not too shabby!

5. Create 3D Web Visualizations

Create 3D visualizations that anyone can view in a web browser, with new support for Esri I3S and glTF for Cesium (FME 2017).

Left: every building in NYC loaded as Cesium 3D Tiles. Right: with textures added, written to I3S and loaded in ArcGIS Earth.

6. Generate Microsoft Excel, Word, and PowerPoint Files

New transformers let you style and output your data for Excel spreadsheets, Word pages, and PowerPoint slides.

FME powerpoint A map of Canada written to PowerPoint with FME. Each province is its own polygon with a label.

7. Coordinate System Updates

Australia’s GDA 2020 & German Niedersachsen datum shift grids available
RSO System Updates (Malaysia)

8. More Format and Transformer Improvements

A lot of existing formats and transformers were improved. For example:

S3 transformers have been merged into a single S3Connector, and files can be accessed directly like a filesystem
Creator now supports creating clothoids and 3D arcs
FeatureWriter supports output ports
Several transformers have an added Tolerance parameter

FME featurewriter FeatureWriter with multiple input and output ports.

Work Play More Efficiently – FME Workbench enhancements

9. Collapsible Bookmarks

More easily manage large workspaces by collapsing sections under colorful bookmarks that you can expand when necessary.

FME collapsible-bookmarks

10. Partial Workspace Runs (Tech Preview)

Get immediate feedback when authoring FME Workspaces by running only the portion of the workspace you’re focused on.

FME partial run “Run from This”, “Run just This”, and “Run to This” buttons.

11. Embedded FME Data Inspector (Tech Preview)

Instantly view transformation results right inside FME Workbench

12. Copy & Paste Transformer Test Conditions

Copy-paste conditions and conditional values between transformer dialogs.

FME copy paste

13. Customized Translation Log

Filter the translation log to display only error or warning messages.

FME translation log

14. Better Performance

Significant improvements in engine performance with many scenarios clocking in 30% faster and using 45% less memory.

15. FME Python API

A documentation overhaul makes the FME Python API much easier to navigate and learn from.

FME python api

FME Server Updates

FME Server 2018.0 was built from the ground up and has a lot of new features to get excited about.

16. Job Filtering

In the Job interface, flip a switch to filter by jobs that have succeeded or failed.

17. Password Recovery

Administrators can set up a system email account so users can recover their passwords.

18. Dark Mode

Customize your FME Server interface.

FME interface dark

19. Workspace Viewing (Tech Preview)

View your FME Workspace from directly within the FME Server interface.

20. Deployment Visualization

See the hosts comprising a deployment and the server components on each host.

FME deployment visualization

21. Project Sharing

Share FME Server Projects without sharing security credentials. Coming soon to FME Hub.

22. FME Server on Docker

This is out of tech preview. Quickly deploy FME Server on any platform that supports Docker.

23. Version Control

Also out of tech preview. See previous versions in the FME Server interface, and create a version history when publishing a workspace from FME Workbench.